


The Afternoon Streets

by bookwormally



Series: VanVen Week 2019 [1]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Post-Canon, Post-Kingdom Hearts III, VanVen Week (Kingdom Hearts), Vanitas Lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-21
Updated: 2019-12-21
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:15:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21888013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bookwormally/pseuds/bookwormally
Summary: The sun is always setting in Twilight Town, marking a world between and a place where time stands still. It's bright and shadowed, but always warm. Ventus and Vanitas watch the sunset and eat some ice cream.Day 1 of VanVen week 2019: VanVen day!
Relationships: Vanitas/Ventus (Kingdom Hearts)
Series: VanVen Week 2019 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1576693
Comments: 15
Kudos: 64





	The Afternoon Streets

**Author's Note:**

> Twilight Town is honestly, like, one of the prettiest places in Kingdom Hearts. It's the perfect kind of warmth and its music is just wonderful. Hopefully, I captured some of that feeling in this little piece.

The sun is always setting here, but up on the hill it seems as if the sun leans heavily on the horizon, promising the dark very soon. It’s quieter here, Sunset Terrace a calmer district than the Tram Common that makes up the center of Twilight Town. Full of hidden corners and mysterious places, it’s a district that’s full of the shadows of twilight and less of the light. It’s calming even as the ever-present sunset paints the buildings in bright oranges and golds.

Leaving the houses behind, Ventus slowly climbs the hill that marks the edge of the city. The only thing out here are the tracks leading off into the cool dark of space and what promises to be a pretty nice view. It’s also rather empty; Ven only passes a couple of people on his way up and they’re all on their way home. The day, for what it is here, is ending.

Time is funny between the worlds, so Ventus’s day only began a couple hours ago. Flagging energy isn’t the reason for his slow climb up to the top of the hill. He should be buzzing with energy, darting up to the top with the winds calling to him. Ven slows down a bit more as he catches sight of the sun brightening the lip of the hill. Looking down at the wrapped ice cream bars in his hand, it’s not hard to name the bubbling feeling in his gut— he’s nervous.

Things have changed in the last year. The whirlwind of waking to a war against a man he thought dead, regaining his friends, meeting new ones, losing new ones… It was a lot all at once and then...a couple months of healing. Quiet months where they learned each others’ wounds, the scars they had now, and worked on being true friends again.

Six months of peace and then something had drawn Ventus back to the Keyblade Graveyard in the middle of the night. He’d woken sharply, something yanking at his chest. He didn’t question it, he went, following the tug through the Lanes and almost unsurprised to see the Graveyard rise in front of him. The pull was stronger and by the time Ven landed in the crossroads, it was easy to see that he wasn’t the only one there.

Kairi, Riku, Roxas, Xion, and Naminé were all there, all waiting. Ven had joined the, their silent vigil as the pull at his heart twisted and yanked. The others were silent, looking around, but none of them seemed to feel it hurt the way he did. Ven fisted a hand over his heart and yanked  _ back _ .

The keyhole had broken the ground right underneath them, shattering it like glass. They gaped and danced back as darkness and light ripped a way open. Sora came home, pulling himself and someone else from the pit so far below them.

Vanitas had been a tattered shadow, clinging to Sora’s shoulder, but they had been alive. As the others swept Sora into a hug he’d take ages to escape from, Ventus took hold of Vanitas’s arm and kept him from falling to the ground. They didn’t say anything. They stood and waited and then they went home.

Explanations came slowly from both Sora and Vanitas, but they came. Things were...different now, without Xehanort to shape and guide and point Vanitas. He was a shadow, not whole, but not what he was either. His eyes were red with only a faint ring of gold around his pupils. Things changed.

They’re friends now...of a sort.

The ice cream is starting to melt in the wrapper as he ruminates on the past. Ventus forces himself to climb the last few feet and the sunset bursts brightly into view, half-blinding him. Still, he sees the shadow of someone sitting on the fence beside the model of the train station tower. It is impossible not to know Vanitas, the tug in his chest much lighter, but always present. Ven steels himself, pushes down the bubbling emotions, and approaches.

He doesn’t say anything, sitting beside Vanitas on the fence and staring toward the sunset. He and Vanitas have talked plenty, arguing about training and the past and what the best type of food is. (Obviously ice cream. Vanitas’s taste for raw coffee beans is just weird.) But sometimes, they don’t talk, which Ven thinks is better progress than talking too much. Talking is how arguments start. In silence, they can just  _ be. _

Vanitas is sitting and staring, his eyes a brighter red than the sky. It’s almost a guarantee that he’s thinking too much; Aqua and Ven agree that his mind never stops going. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad. Either way, Ven figures Vanitas needs breaks before he starts smoking. He lifts the ice cream bars and waves one in front of Vanitas’s nose. He can see the moment Vanitas blinks it into focus, because he frowns and looks over at Ven.

Ven grins at him. “We can’t come and not have their ice cream. I’m decently sure it’s illegal.”

“Only to the redhead,” Vanitas grumbles, but he takes it from Ven’s hand. (That is another victory, Vanitas taking things without expecting something to be taken from him.) Their fingers brush and despite Vanitas’s gloves, there’s a slight shock. (Static electricity that makes Ven’s entire arm shiver.)

Ven leans back a bit to open his, watching as Vanitas simply bites the top of the wrapper and rips it clean off that way. He spits to the side, grabbing it with a hand before the wind can drag it off. Ven grins at that too. “No littering,” he mutters.

Vanitas kicks him hard in the ankle. “I’m not.”

He deserved that, but the momentary ache makes more sparks under his skin and Ven is only starting to really get  _ why _ he wants to prod Vanitas, to make him react, to make them both explode…

His cheeks are burning and he takes a quick lick of the ice cream. Salty, sweet, and cool, it’s perfect for the setting sun. Ven swings one of his legs out and back, tapping his heel against the fence each time. Vanitas can feel his feelings, but they’ve both been working on minimizing that part of their bond, separating themselves that much more. Vanitas already has his own emotions to carry, he doesn’t need Ven’s too. (The embarrassment might have killed him otherwise.)

Vanitas is careful with the ice cream, licking it once in a while and keeping it from his teeth. It’s like watching a cat and Ven watches especially for the flash of Vanitas’s small fangs. Vanitas knows he’s doing it, but they’ve already had that argument several times. Ventus doesn’t think he’s a freak or strange for having them. Isa has them too and so can Xion and honestly, having fangs is just  _ cool. _ They should be a vampire coven for Halloween.

The real trouble is how much he wants to touch, to poke Vanitas in the cheek and see those fangs up close. He wants to push his hair out of his face so he can really see the red and the gold and his so faint freckles that dot over his nose. He wants to  _ look _ at Vanitas, to really see him like it’ll help, help  _ understand _ him.

He’s goddamn obsessed. Ven sighs and takes another lick of ice cream. He doesn’t want it to melt all over his hands while he’s busy thinking too hard. He’s here to enjoy the ice cream, the sunset, the quiet, and...Vanitas being here beside him. It should be easy now.

“Do you ever hear bells in your dreams?” Vanitas’s gruff question comes out of nowhere and Ven jumps, fingers digging into the wood of the fence.

“Huh?” Brilliant, simply brilliant. Ven looks at Vanitas who nods over his shoulder. Ven turns and in the distance, he can see the station tower. Faintly, the bells are ringing out the hour.

_ Echoing across the square, they tell the time of day. They tell the time of the end. _

Ven bites his lip. “...Yeah, I do. Not these, but...close. It makes me...uncomfortable.”

“Yeah,” Vanitas agrees. “They mean something bad.”

“Not here. Those are just the time. Like a clock tower should be.” Ven can picture it, all the gears and motors turning the clock hands and the bells rocking back to prepare to ring. Lea took them inside one time, another door they shouldn’t go through, but it’s not like anyone could stop them. It was magical...and it made him break out into a cold sweat.

Here, now, Ven shakes it off and looks at Vanitas instead. “Old memories, you think?”

Vanitas nods. “Ghosts. Like we don’t have enough haunting us.” The memories they can remember, the ones they can’t, both cutting at them in the dark. But they’re not on their own, not on opposite sides anymore.

Ven leans closer and bumps their elbows together. “It’s hard to be haunted at sunset.”

“Wrong,” Vanitas says firmly, not as distant as the past makes him. He points the ice cream at Ventus. “That’s when realms can be crossed.”

“But it’s always sunset here.”

“Why do you think this town is so fucking weird?” Vanitas arches an eyebrow and licks his ice cream like it’s the most serious thing ever.

Ven bursts into laughter. “Okay, okay, you’re right. This place is pretty weird.” The sunset paints them both in warm colors and he can see the warmth slip into Vanitas’s eyes. “But I like it…” His heart is pounding in his chest, loud and hard and Vanitas  _ must _ feel it. Ventus looks away from him. “I like it,” he repeats.

The silence after he speaks is heavy, the blood pounding in his ears. Vanitas shifts on the fence beside him and Ven’s mouth is dry.  _ I like-. _

Their arms press together, Vanitas right next to him. “I like it too,” he says, eyes on the sunset when Ven dares to look. “It’s...warm here.”

Ven takes a breath and then moves his fingers over Vanitas’s, slowly curling them together. Scars and calluses are mostly covered by Vanitas’s soft gloves, but he can feel the slight ridges, his own brushing against them. Vanitas’s hand twitches  _ and he wants to pull away, he doesn’t want anything like that anymore-! _

Fingers intertwine with his and Ventus can feel  _ fire _ in his chest and his face. He can’t look at Vanitas, remembering how to breathe. “Yeah, it’s warm,” he agrees and carefully squeezes Vanitas’s hand.

Vanitas is looking at him, the brave one of them, and Ventus manages to breathe even as their eyes meet. Unreadable, angled, a face that came from Sora, but isn’t Sora’s at all. Ventus swallows. “I don’t want to lose you again,” he confesses so softly. “Then everything would be...cold.”

Emotions sweep through Vanitas’s eyes and his fingers tighten painfully around Ventus’s. “I’m not...I’m not going anywhere. You’re, you’re all I have, Ventus.”

“Not anymore. That’s good, but I...I still want to be here. I want us to be together.” It’s jumbled, emotions so hard to convey in simple words. The grip of their hands says more than the words can.

Vanitas nods and then takes a fierce bite of his ice cream. Maybe he’s trying to kill something inside him with pure shock, but as his face twists up from the cold and the salty flavor, Ven breaks into laughter.

Their hands stay intertwined as their ice cream disappears and a train rumbles along on the tracks below. The bells are ringing again when Vanitas’s head lands on Ven’s shoulder and he says, “I always wanted us to be together.”

Neither stick announces them a winner, but as they toss them in high arcs at the bin, Ventus knows he’ll always be glad for the munny spent. (Vanitas’s lands and Ven’s misses.) They climb down the hill, hands intertwined, and argue about ice cream (again) on their way to the station. When Ventus glances above them, he catches sight of two shining stars.


End file.
